Your Monthly Horoscope! by Crystal “Kitty” Shimski

Transcribed by guest contributor Jennifer Coates / Kitty divides her time between New York City and Montauk. She is a freelance Intuitive Technique Specialist and part-time Trance Inducer. She was recently certified in Trauma Re-alignment and holds a dual Associates Degree in Breath Dancing for Painters and Creative Shock Control from the Online Academy of Spiritual Transit. She is devoted to helping painters live out their truth on the surface of their choosing. [Image via Four Muddy Paws]

Taurus (April 20-May 20)
You can count on pain in the early part of the month. That secret practice you’ve been nursing in the studio will lead mostly to frustration. If you have been experimenting with oils, where before you only used acrylics, you will come face to face with your weaknesses and inabilities. If you use watercolors and are attempting to use enamel, you will likely develop breathing difficulties. While I am not saying you should abandon your efforts, just do not show them to anyone. You may not understand your relationship with these new mediums until early June. You may take small comfort in the fact that as Venus enters your financial sector towards the end of the month you may have some sales opportunities, but likely they will be only small, early drawings, sold to a friend who feels sorry for you.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)
In early April, your romantic partner, should you be lucky enough to have one, comes to your studio and hates your new painting. You go out to dinner after and cannot lift your head to speak to him or her. Dejected, you may drool onto your shirt. The good news is that as Venus enters your sign, this will be a time to become more confident in spite of the lack of support for your work from any arena. In your studio you are you! It’s a great time to invest in new clothes for the studio, perhaps install a mirror to see if ultramarine blue is staining your nose before going out to the hallway. A New Moon in your friendship sector will bring more social opportunities despite your haircut. Anything is possible!

Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Stress and anxiety are your studio mates this month. If only you could finish a single painting, you would feel better about things. All you can do is try to wash your hands before eating. After the middle of the month, start using more purple. After all, it is the color of bruising and it is the color most likely to recharge your spiritual batteries. If you don’t have a gallery, this month will find you pining for one that will never consider you. Career news does brighten, however, at the end of the month, thanks to the beauty of the New Moon in your professional 10th house. This is the ideal time to curate a show that includes yourself, or go after whatever other meager offerings that are out there that may enhance your reputation. The future is now!

Leo (July 23-August 22)
A friend invites you over for a studio visit and complains about a career problem that you would kill to have. You may experience frustration but do your best to take the high road: remember that this person may invite you to an insufferable long dinner, where you *might* meet someone who *might* come to your studio in five years. Thankfully Venus enters your friendship sector and you actually have a lot of fun this month, so be sure to accept all your invitations. Be open to possibilities! At the end of the month your heart will be set on new horizons in the studio. This is the time for inner journeys and incorporating text into your paintings. Life is good!

Virgo (August 23-September 22)
Take control of your finances! You are spending too much money on art supplies and alcohol. You may lose a source of income this month so time to cut down on drinking and make less paintings with fewer colors! Whatever the details, just remember you are resourceful and you will get through this, perhaps even shedding a few pounds in the process. Things brighten towards the end of the month as Venus enters your career sector, bringing you validation from your friends who are more successful than you. This is an ideal time to ask for a studio visit from a curator you’ve had your eye on. You may even hear news about a group show that seems promising. Be confident and move forward!
Libra (September 23-October 22)
The bad news is that you are more sensitive this month. The cosmic sky is playing out its dramas in your mind and you cannot tolerate the criticism of others. A studio visit turns nasty as an acquaintance tells you “the truth” about your paintings. But if you can endure this shaming without reacting until they leave, slowly but surely you will be able to begin painting again around Memorial Day. If there was ever a time to go see shows in the galleries, this is it. Besides, who knows? You might see something you like! Empower yourself! Fortunately a New Moon is coming into your relationship sector by the end of the month: time to make a new friend who is nicer than the old friend.
Scorpio (October 23-November 21)
Be nice to yourself this month. That bad review or bad news affects you at your existential depths. All you can do is try to sleep, not get sick, and not become a full-on addict. Finances are on the upturn this month though, as you sell a large painting directly from your studio at market price, with only a minimal discount. The New Moon in your work sector marks a fresh start. Either a friend of yours has also suffered a career blow or you may have an idea for a new series of paintings based on someone else’s paintings. You’re likely to feel excited by the end of the month. Things are looking up!

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)
This month is about letting go. It may be of an expensive but paint-stained shirt, a competitive friendship or a long-held dream of having a museum exhibition. If this happens it’s because the thing is just not workable in your life and facing reality once in a while is actually healthy. Magical thinking works great in paintings but not always in life! Meanwhile Venus makes a tour of your relationship sector, so expect that special someone, if there is a special someone, to be much more accepting of your “quirks.” You’ll feel strongly that this person is really on your team. Towards the end of the month your paintings will require more impasto and smearing. Make it happen!
Capricorn (December 22-January 19)
If your paintings are really good, this month you will get the attention you deserve. You may even receive a grant or award. However if they are still somewhat derivative or perhaps even weak, you will find out one way or another, over and over, for several days in a row. It’s possible that a friend accuses your colors of being muddy or too often used straight from the tube, or maybe that your work looks like someone else’s. Whatever the criticism, even if it rattles you, it is correct! You would do well to really examine your process at every level. Keep in mind that even if this brutal self-assessment leads you to never paint again, it’s better to know now what you are truly meant to be doing with your life. Make it count!

Aquarius (January 20-February 18)
This month has a crisis of conscience in store. For some reason, you are overly concerned with ethics and morality. Whatever the details, you may either have to stand up for something you believe is right or come clean about borrowing the ideas of an unsuspecting grad student in the Midwest whose art department you visited late last year. Even if you can’t make it right, you can expect to grow as a person, if not an artist, from this experience. In lighter news, Venus will be touring your love sector towards the end of the month and this once-a-year phenomenon will finally help you to enjoy sex. A brilliant New Moon will also ensure your studio neighbors will be quiet this month.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)
Your finances may be a source of frustration this month. You may owe more money than you thought to the IRS or you may face an audit. The next several months will be a nightmare of paperwork and distraction from your studio practice as you realize you have not been religiously saving receipts and you’ve taken way too many Ubers. Just remember! It will pass. In happier news, once you resume painting, you gain a sense of confidence about using spray paint, despite its irksome prevalence. If you need to find a new studio mate, you are likely to find a good one this month! One who does not clog the toilet, one who does not play Enya, one who does not leave behind rotting lunchmeat. Peace and harmony are coming your way.

Aries (March 21-April 19)
Relationships may be touchy this month. Avoid doing any studio visits or you will find yourself telling someone you hate their paintings, or comforting them as they cry about a situation you can’t relate to, or spending a long time giving relationship advice to someone who is supposed to be looking at your work. You might find yourself in some unwanted sticky situations! So spend a lot of time alone over the next few weeks. By the end of the month, your confidence will receive a major boost. It’s a great time to get back to the gym, so you will actually look better rather than just think you do. Meanwhile, the sky is the limit in the studio: splurge on some new canvases and show us what you got!

——

Two Coats of Paint is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. For permission to use content beyond the scope of this license, permission is required.

Two Coats of Paint is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To use content beyond the scope of this license, permission is required.

Robin Lowe’s exquisitely eerie paintings
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / It goes almost without saying that paintings of people need to bring more to the table than faithful visual representations of what the people look like. But what ...

Art and Film: Amy Jenkins hosts death
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / During and after the AIDS epidemic, gay artists like Carlos Alfonzo, Ross Bleckner, Robert Gober, and Keith Haring used visual art to convey the tragedy ...

Byron Kim’s painting ritual
Every Sunday, Byron Kim makes a painting of the sky. One hundred of these purposefully unremarkable small canvases are on view at James Cohan through February 17. What makes them ...

The Casualist tendency
This essay, which builds upon an essay about contemporary abstract painting that I wrote for The Brooklyn Rail in 2011, was just published in the January/February 2014 issue of Christie's ...

Undergraduate Sketchbook: Katie Fuller
"The sketchbook practice is always something I return to when painting or any other more physical work seems too daunting. The intimacy is healing. It’s a safe space where I can fool around with unresolved ...

The Desert is Not Barren, Part 1
Contributed by Mary Addison Hackett / When I first moved to the desert, my intention was to be close enough to the Los Angeles art scene without having to deal ...

Subscribe VIA Email

Sharing content

Two Coats of Paint is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Contact Sharon Butler via email for permission to use content beyond the scope of this license.